Send a letter to Senator Niederhouser to tell him to end his membership with ALEC now!
An article by Utah Policy sang the praises of Senator Niederhauser in his current position as treasurer of the corporate lobbying group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), but failed to inform readers of the troubling positions of the organization and the influential role it has on shaping state policy without any public knowledge. Utah Policy applauded Senator Niederhauser’s role as treasurer for raising Utah’s political clout nationally. However, Senator Niederhauser’s involvement with ALEC weakens the political strength of Utah citizens by allowing the deep pockets of corporations to wield legislators for their own agenda without regard for the state’s interests.
ALEC is group that brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations to draft model bills for lawmakers to pass in their state. “ALEC is sort of like a dating service between politicians at the state level, local elected politicians, and many of America’s biggest companies. It brings them together much as a dating service would do. It sits them in rooms behind closed doors where three times a year they come together to think about what should be the next wave of state-based legislation and they have presentations from the companies that say what they would like to see done legislatively in states right across America,” explains the Chief Reporter of the Guardian US.
The legislators and corporations vote as equals in determining what legislation should be introduced in state legislatures—meaning corporations have the same amount of say as lawmakers in determining state legislative agendas. Most troubling is ALEC’s role is kept completely anonymous. As a result, Utah citizens have no way of knowing if their representative’s bill was written by a corporation or by an elected official.Crafting bills without exposing the source of who is behind them undermines Utah’s ability to legislate in our own best interest and with full transparency to the people of our State. Sen. Niederhauser was elected to represent the citizens of Utah and for Sen. Niederhauser to truly represent the interests of Utah he must end his membership with ALEC.
Contact Senator Niederhouser HERE to tell him that his membership with ALEC must end now!
